Suddenly there is an eruption of activity. Literally all around the city. Three bombs are reported near simultaneously. In Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The major boroughs around Manhattan. All at financial institutions. Its doesn't jive with the idea of a bank robbery. No vault opened, they go off in the lobby and cause injuries. At nearly the same time.

Oddly enough, nothing on Manhattan. Black Lightning volunteers to go to the one in the Bronx, his lightning speed being near that of light anyways. Though even en route another message comes in, a robbery in progress at the Museum of Natural History near Central Park.

Even more odd, and perhaps sensitive as goes the way of magic. It is a rare staff/artifact taken from an underground vault, laden with magic and best kept locked up. It was thought to be safe in that vault, even warded by other magi too, and suddenly there is a disturbance in the force.

Over the comm, Captain Atom reports in, "I'm near Queens presently. Altering my route and will reach the target in 19 seconds. Over." The whistle of the wind is heard over the open comm and the sounds of sirens can be detected as he nears the location.

In her Sanctum Santorium, Topaz is unware of explosions at banks or the heros that are dispatching themselves to deal with the consequences. What she is aware of is the alarms going off through the magical ley-lines as the wardings at the Museum are breached. She is not officially a memeber of the Outsiders so has no comm device, and even if she did, it wouldn't work. So even if she did think of calling backup she couldn't. Sending her magical senses flowing down the ley-lines she searches for the disturbance and once found latches on and with a arcane gesture and guttaral word teleports herself to the Museum.

"Roger that, going in now, to see the damage." Says Black Lightning, first responders outside, fightning a light fire, as others help the wounded, as he comes in deciding to go in to look for other survivors.

At the Museum, its still fresh, no responders yet, the call just went out. Though there are people there, it seems a small bomb was used to hit the vault, but whoever it is is already escaping. They do have the magical artifact in hand if she wants to try and locate the people that way. It seems they moved in or out quick, preplanned and running smoothly this theft.

A few seconds pass and Captain Atom finds himself in the proximity of the exploded bank. He flies inside through broken glass and will call out to survivors as he begins to render assistance. More time will pass before he relays, "Atom here; I've contained the situation in Queens; in route to Brooklyn. Over."

It's not a hard job for Topaz to track the robbers. She can sense the trailing magic from the Staff, with lots of confusion but no one injured the sorceress can focus on that. Another more intricate wave of hands and a word that burns the ears of those in hearing range, and she is in flight, taking off after the people fleeing with the staff. Her flight is so much faster than her running, but they have a head start so she races to catch up.

Inside the building, Lightning sees no robbery evidence at all. Just a random explosion in the middle of the lobby, much like Atom might of scene. "Did they steal anything from Queens, I'll head to Brooklyn and randevous, all contained here." Minus a little fire, which is quickly coming under wraps. Lightning makes with the Lightning, moving to catch up with Captain Atom.

When Topax takes to flying, she will notice on a nearby rooftop, away from the Musuem, there is a hussy in green (literally, wearing a green body suit with no arms or legs on the fabric, but hippy like boots and sleeves) running with the Staff in hand. She leaps, bounds twists and gets from building to building with acrobatic ease that might make Nightcrawler or Spiderman jealous actually.

Atom reports back, "I saw no evidence of tampering with the vault itself. This seems like another diversionary tactic. Are there any other reports of major incidents presently? Over." In the mean time, Atom flies into the bank and finds Brooklyn in the same shape as Queens and the Bronx.

An exaspearated sigh comes from Topaz »>Why do they always run?«< she mutters in a language that has probably last heard spoken by some goat herder when Istanbul was still Constantinople and still part of the Byzantine Empire. She continues to fly after the woman, she's not about to diss on the woman's clothes, she's flying above Manhattan in basically a haltertop, skirt and no shoes. Hands begin to glow as she reaches out both physically and with her TK to grab the Staff and wrest it from the woman.

As Black Lightning is coming to land near Atom, someone on the other ends returns, "Only a vault robbery at the Museum of Natural History, one artifact, nothing major." Well, still major being a robbery, but no deaths or injuries or rampages.

As the grab and TK assist by Topaz is initiated, she might feel the staff becoming more weighted. Chesire lets go and tries to Ninja-chop and then roundhouse heel towards Topaz. Its probably worth noting that she has different poisons on her fingernails, as she does this. There is a tiny laugh from the staff as Dwarf Star starts to grow, continuing to increase his mass on a subatomic level.

Receiving another channel communication, Captain Atom replies, "Roger that. ETA, 4 minutes." and will turn to Black Lightning, "I'm needed in Turkey. I'll be comms silent for at least 12 hours. Good luck with tracking down the culpret. He will quickly depart without additional exchange of words but it's understood that the military still owns him and when they need him, he goes.

Topaz might not be a fighter, but she knows that if she forcibly take something you better not be in the same spot you were in when they retaliate, so she teleports. Of course that still leaves the changing Dwarf Star in her hands, which totally perplexes her. Naturally she lets go and backs well away, wondering of course how she could have been fooled in such a manner. Powerful magics must be afoot to be able to fool her magical senses in such a fashion.

It might not be easy to rationalize, that when he started, his size and mass were hidden amongst subatomic particles to begin with, including his density, but as he comes more to shape, he's just there. Or that he understands some of the powers of the staff. He laughs though, "You heroes are all the same, never expect a small man to be so keen." Though, really, he's regular size except when he employs his abilities to alter himself.

"Keep Running," says Chesire to Dwarfstar, "Don't give her a chance to take the staff." She knows what they're after, and its not witty banter.

Black Lightning is streaking down towards the Musuem, but sees the struggle going on, heading in that direction.

The bells on wrists chime as Topaz jiggles her wrists "Oh, I won't take the staff. Not when you will give it to me willingly." she reaches out with her empathic abilties, pulling away the desire to flee and keep the staff, while implanting the desire to give it to her "I mean you want to give me the staff don't you? I mean it's useless you. It's only truly powerful in the hands of a mage." that might not be entirely true, but she can make them beleive that too.

Control of his body, subatomically, Dwarfstar has without a doubt, but his mind not so much. He chuckles sheepishly, "Aw, I bet you say that to all the cute small guys in your life." Though, on that rooftop, he starts moving towards you.

"You fool," says Cheshire, running to jump and spring off of Dwarfstar towads the floating Topaz.

Whether she gets close enough or not, with Topaz maneuvering, beguiling, or simply being too far … Lightning strikes. His legs charged, he is in full form and literally tackles Cheshire, catching her by surprise. "Fool," she quips as he hits her, scratching him through his suit as the tumble to the ground. Separating, Black Lightning starts to focus stunning bolts at Chesire.

Erstwhile, Dwarfstar continues to walk towards Topaz like a fool, "You'll show me how to use a staff properly?"

Does she notice the flying tackle of Cheshire, probably, but Topaz has to focus to keep Drawf Star pliable "Of course." she smiles warmly at him, she has lots of practice at that "But first you have to give me the staff." she'll put a hand on the staff and a hand on his cheek "You want to do that, don't you." she nods at him, the flesh to flesh contact making the magic she uses that much stronger.

Rolling from Black Lightning, Chesire sweeps a leg as she moves away, taking the man down, and moving to yell, "Don't listen to her you fool, she…." And about that time, from the ground, Black Lightning hucks a bolt of lightning at her to stun her into submission. Evening turning to stand, to see if Topaz needs help, he starts to push up but feels weakened from poison.

Dwarfstar smiles more at the hand on his cheek, starting to hold the staff up like a present for Topaz.

Topaz takes the Staff from the man the smile never leaving her face "Thank you." nor her hand his cheek as she begins to pull his life energy from him "You're feeling sleepy, aren't you? How about you just fall over and sleep." she continues to draw his energies until he does just that. There won't be any permanent damage to him, but he will sleep for a while.

"Ya … slee …." is about all Dwarfstar gets until he joins Chesire in the realm of the unconscious. Looking up enough to see that happen, Black Lightning manages to sort of get to sitting/kneeling, both hands on the rocks of the rooftop. Not thinking about howit makes his hands feel with so much weight on them while over those rocks, he's too weak to think about it, and is still trying to hold himself up. "More magic …" Is what his mind thinks, about the way he feels, not deducing poison, not rationale enough from the poison to think that.

Topaz knows that whatever is effecting BL it isn't magic. Rushing to his side she drops to her knees and sets the staff across them "This is no magic." she takes his face between her hands and stares first at him and then through him as she dives her consciousness into his bodily systems searching out the culprit.

His head lifting to give her his eyes, Black Lightning isn't quite rolling them yet, but if this continues he might be there joining Dwarfstar and Cheshire. Looking into him, she can see that he has been poisoned, by two distinct poisons. Two scratches on his back from Cheshire. One poison causing his mind to go fuzzy, the other to kill him. Its not super fast, but he's going in that direction now.

This is where the siphoned energy from Dwarfstar will come in handy. Normally it would just be flowed back into the earth, Topaz can't use human life energy for spells, but she can use it for healing. Incantations fall from her lips, she probably doesn't need them, but they aid focus and give the energy instructions and boundaries. Green beams of light begin to flare from her and stab into BL, but it causes no pain. The energy seeks out the poisons that rush through the circulatory system, destroying them on a molecular level in places, starting with the most lethal of the toxins first. This could take a few minutes.

Lost in whatever his mind was conjuring from the drug/poison, Black Lightning wouldn't know pain at the moment if he did feel it, and then the flare of green from her eyes stabbing into him would be distracting the same. Even for Topaz and her total life experience and knowledge, these poisons are up there amongst the worst she has seen. Cheshire isn't just a deadly martial artists, but she knows her poison and could be the best in the world at it. Black Lightning can do nothing but remain still while Topaz does her magic.

Minutes pass as the energy chases toxins through BL's body and works on destroying every last bit of it, as well as that flu bug that was trying to get a foot hold in his respiratory system. There isn't much left but what little enegy there is is used to bolster his own energy levels. He'll feel like he needs a nap, but at least he will be able to get home, in a mundane way at least. Carefully she extracts herself her consconsiousness and returns to her own body. "Are you alright?" she queries, hands still on his face.

Blinking a moment as he comes more to himself and she asks if he is allright, Black Lightning is lost in that one moment as if seeing her for the first time. There is no stupid line to follow about angels, that's passe. Though his eyes linger a moment, but she may get this a lot anyways. Taking control of those thoughts, fighting the idea to nap, he returns, "I am now." Knowing full well she did something that just saved his life most likely, and a lot of thanks coming through as he looks at her. "Are you well?" As in, bad guys taken care of.

"I am fine." Topaz drops her hand, one going to the staff and the other gesturing to the fallen bad guys "Could you call the authorities and tell them we have subdued the Museum robbers. And that they should wear protective gloves when dealing with her." she gets to her feet and offers to help BL to his "Come, we must return this to the museum and get you home and into bed. That poison took more out of you than I could replace."

Half a grin, "Good," says Black Lighting that she is fine. He gladly takes the hand, tapping at his ear piece, "Two villain found robbing the Museum, handle with protective gloves on account of poisons, located on top of building at «streets nearby», have someone look into the bank bombings today for correlations." He might go look himself, but Doc Mid-Nite is an expert at that sort of thing.

Being helped up, he looks around again, reaching a hand up to feel where he was scratched. "You did more than enough, I'm alive, even if tired. Glad you were around, again." He points that out, "Anyone else interested in this, should we keep an eye out?"

"Many people would be interested in the Staff of One." Topaz examines the staff closely. She has heard all about it, but has only seen it in pictures. Even she is tempted to hold onto it for awhile, but knows the dangers in that "We may want to see if this has anything to do with Pluto returning as well. A powerful artifact and a god trying to return. Maybe it is a coincidence, maybe not." she hooks an arm through his, it's the only warnig he has before the rooftop disappers and they are in the vault area of the museum with police and other museum authority figures moving around "Her is the stolen object. Please contact me when you are ready to ward it." she hands over a card which appears from nowhere.

While he won't complain about the arm being held, he is disoriented by the mystical transportation. Brows lifting, he can say little else to the authorities as they take the staff and her card. The police and security looks confused, but the Curator rushes forward to take the card, "Yes, certainly, at your earliest convenience." Either he knows who she is, or enough that he can trust her when it is time for the warding. They'll work quickly to stablize the vault from the bomb earlier, and any damage done by Dwarfstar shrinking down in size and messing things up. "Thank you."

Even before he says that, Black Lightning turns an eye, impressed, on Topaz for moving them about so quickly. "This just might be. We haven't checked out other members of that cult, but we do have the satellite used to help open the partial portal when we first saw Pluto. I might be going to the factor where it was made, could I ask you to join me?" He couldn't make any presumptions saying she is needed, though its true, he feels that he can only ask humbly.

Topaz nods and gives the curator her typical disarming smile, "I will await your call." she turns still hanging onto BL's arm and begins to guide the way out "Well if the device was channeling magic like I think it was, than me going would be best." as they walk and she talks she uses her telepathy to trigger an image of his home by plucking certain tired, wanna go home strings. Between one step and the next they are away from the museum and in front of his home in Metropolis "Home." she goes up on tiptoes an pecks him on the cheek, "Sleep safe Azeez." as she steps back she disappears…curse those teleporters!